The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne has announced his retirement. He will retire on September 1 2026 after 18 years in the role.
Having overseen so much development at the cathedral during his tenure and with Christ Church’s millennium approaching in 2028, Dean Dunne felt the time was right for someone else to take the helm.
He cites the overhauling of the governance structures of the cathedral, which culminated with the passing of a Bill at last year’s General Synod, as one of the major achievements to take place under his leadership. There has also been a lot of work carried out on the fabric of the building, the latest being the conservation work to the clerestory windows which has just been completed.
During his time, the regular cathedral congregation has been built up and the cathedral’s income has been secured to ensure that the building is not a burden on the dioceses.
“The cathedral has moved forward in a positive and strong way, especially in last 10 years since 2016. I was on sabbatical and cathedral was in the doldrums and I said to myself that I was going to turn the ship around and make it a success,” the Dean recalled.
“One of my big drives has been to make sure the cathedral is known by the dioceses and owned by the dioceses. We have achieved this by parishes coming in on tours to experience the cathedral, through clergy involvement and in particular retired clergy and by involving lay readers. Others including Margaret Daly–Denton, Mothers’ Union and the Ministry of Healing all make for a living cathedral,” he added.
There is always a tension between balancing the life of a busy tourist attraction and the worship life of the cathedral. Dean Dunne explained that this was an essential part of the work that went into the new governance structure.
“Our mission states that our charitable purpose is the promotion of religion. Everything we do in the cathedral is about promoting religion. So the focus is building and maintaining community,” he explained. The core congregation is expanded by visitors all year round and the cathedral is attracting more younger worshipers, despite the formal structure of the services. To serve these young people the cathedral has established the Community of St Laurence which has a very enthusiastic membership. Another section of the cathedral community joins services online with the webcam becoming increasingly popular.
Dean Dunne paid tribute to the fantastic team which is involved in running Christ Church Cathedral, in particular the CEO Susanne Reid and Director of Music Tom Little. He added that the appointment of a residential Precentor in Canon Roy Byrne, would further strengthen the team.